The show must go on at Richter House

News-Times, The (Danbury, CT), Newstimes

Published
1:00 am EST, Thursday, March 5, 2009

The e-mail moved with little fanfare Thursday, but oceans of hope and plenty of chutzpah.

Musicals at Richter -- the state's longest-running outdoor theater -- announced it will hold auditions this month for its 25th season, a summer schedule that boasts "Funny Girl," "A Chorus Line" and "Children of Eden."
Once more, the lawn outside
Richter House
on Aunt
Hack Road
in Danbury will come to life.
Unfortunately, the tenuous future of Richter House, the theater company's magnificent backdrop, remains on life support.
After years of neglect by the

-- desperately needs repairs.
Remember the storm that dropped 9 inches of snow on Danbury this week? Richter House's 90-year-old frame was protected by a tarp, a plastic afterthought thrown over a leaking roof.
Richter House also needs plumbing and electrical work. It needs asbestos abatement and pest control. It likely needs $500,000 or more of extensive repairs before all is said and done.
But more than anything, Richter House needs cultural tenants. It needs the Musicals at

Richter and Richter Arts
. It needs violins that serenade the heavens and entrances that steal the show.
"The Richter House is a real community asset," said
Betty Bontempi
, president of Richter Arts. "We certainly don't want to lose it."
Earlier this month, Gov.
M. Jodi Rell
pulled the plug on $300,000 earmarked for Richter House repairs in the 2007 state bonding bill.
Richter House wasn't the only casualty. Rell erased about $400 million in state bonding projects. The Richter House money, locked up for nearly two years in Hartford coffers, was barely a drop in that bucket.
For those keeping track at home, the Richter House portion was exactly .00075 of 1 percent.
To be sure, in this economic climate, Rell didn't have much choice. But that doesn't mean we should turn off the stove on this project. We should move Richter House to the back burner for 2009, and keep the flame flickering on simmer.
Betty Bontempi is helping to do that with art shows and poetry readings and classical music concerts.
"We've already planned our spring season," she said Thursday night. "We have our calendar completed through the end of May."
The Richter Park Authority hasn't received city funding since 1985, but that doesn't absolve the group from largely ignoring Richter House all these years.
I fully understand Richter House doesn't generate revenue like the Richter Park golf course. But it's an inseparable part of the Richter legacy, one that deserves to be treated so much better.
Richter House overlooked the vistas on the city's west side long before any golfer swung a driver there. The farmhouse was donated to the city in 1968 by the late

Irene Richter
in memory of her husband, Stanley.
Richter House was supposed to be taken care of by the authority, not ignored until it deteriorated into a $500,000 repair bill.
Consider: Chapter 13A of the city's code of ordinances relates to parks and recreation, including the
Stanley Lasker Richter Memorial Park Authority
. Article II of the chapter deals with the creation and powers of the Richter Park Authority.
Among other points, Sec. 13A-11 reads, "Such authority shall have the following powers: To administer, operate and maintain said Stanley Lasker Richter
Memorial Park
and any adjacent land owned by the city which is made part of the park."
The key word here is "maintain," even if repairs are done a little bit at a time.
In May, the
Danbury Land Trust
will hold a fundraiser to benefit the land trust and Richter House. The benefit will include an art show and poetry readings.
As city officials review a Richter House's needs assessment, the result of a $20,000 grant that paid for a structural engineer and historical architect to study the building, it's important to remember a city's handshake and what it meant when Irene Richter signed her name.
Once the needs assessment is finished, Mayor
Mark Boughton
will be more inclined to release the $50,000 line item he's set aside in the city budget for Richter House repairs.
It's not nearly enough, but it's a start and that's more than we have now.
So here's to Musicals at Richter and Richter Arts. Good luck this season. Let's hope -- just this once, anyway -- you don't bring down the house.